4 Things I’ve Learned From Robert Greene

When I was eighteen a good friend of mine recommended a book to me. It was a 500-page book with the rather sinister sounding title, The 48 Laws of Power. Positions of power have really never interested me—it just goes against my natural temperament I guess—and so if it weren’t for his recommendation, I doubt I would have ever picked the book up. I’m glad I did. Robert Greene has become one of my favorite authors and he has greatly influenced my thinking.

Robert Greene was born in Los Angeles in 1959. He got his degree in classical studies and went on to work over 50 different jobs—from construction worker to translator to hotel receptionist. In 1995 at the age of 36, Greene pitched a book about power to a book packager in Italy. Three years after the pitch, The 48 Laws of Power was published and would go on to sell 1.2 million copies. Over the next 20 years Robert Greene would write The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, Mastery, and The Laws of Human Nature.

Books with titles as controversial as his are bound to, well, stir up controversy. People have called The 48 Laws of Power a “psychopath’s bible” and the book has even been banned in numerous prisons. His book The Art of Seduction doesn’t even try to conceal its manipulative nature. With chapters like “Choose the Right Victim” and “Use the Demonic Power of Words to Sow Confusion” it’s easy to understand why so many people are opposed to his books.

However, Greene’s books should be looked at as how things are not how they ought to be. His books should be read by the naïve in order to avoid being a victim to actual psychopaths. They should be read with curiosity about human nature as well as to help illuminate our own shadows. His books can best be described by the phrase “it’s better to have and not need than to need and not have”. They will make you a more effective player at the game of life and will give you a much better understanding of yourself.

Here are just four of many things that I have learned from Robert Greene.

1. Immense Amounts of Knowledge Can be Learned From History

In all of his books, Greene lays out a law or proposes an idea and then gives historical examples of that law or idea being played out. In The Laws of Human Nature he urges the reader to resist the law of conformity—to resist the downward pull of groups and crowds. Greene strengthens his claim by illustrating what happened to a college student pulled into the mob during the Chinese Revolution. To exemplify the laws of power, he draws on stories of Napoleon, Henry Kissinger, and Thomas Edison.

Even though using historical examples is not unique to Greene, he is by far the best at it. His writing proves just how useful the study of history is. Although a lot has changed throughout human history, the dynamics of human interaction has stayed mostly the same. History gives us countless examples of strategies that have worked and even more examples of strategies that have failed.

2. Listen More (Talk Less)

A common theme throughout Robert Greene’s work is the insistence on talking less about yourself and paying more attention to the person you are talking to. He has chapters titled “Always Say Less Than Necessary”, “Law of Narcissism: Turn Self-Love into Empathy”, and “Pay Attention to Detail”.

Too many people talk only about themselves. They boast about their accomplishments to further their career or gain admiration, unaware that the other person wants to do the same thing. They are unable to see that talking about themselves often makes them unlikeable whereas giving the other person an opportunity to talk is much more beneficial. The other person will inevitably show their character, spill secrets, and will like you a lot more when the conversation is centered around them. Doing this, you will begin to discover that most people are much more interesting than you initially thought, and if you are being strategic, it’s best to know as much as possible about the other person.

A corollary to this idea is to pay less attention to the words people say and more attention to things like tone and body language. Many people mask their intentions and feelings behind words and if you are only focused on yourself during conversation, you will miss out on the subtle cues that can give you insight to the other persons concealed motives.

3. Mystery is Exciting

Being mysterious comes up frequently in Greene’s books. He urges the reader to use absence to raise value and to become an elusive object of desire. Greene believes you should mask your intentions and appear effortless.

Knowing someone completely is less interesting than only knowing bits and pieces, in the same way knowing the plot of a movie before seeing it spoils most of the enjoyment of a new movie. Things are much more exciting when we have room to let our imagination fill in the missing pieces. We must give people space to mythologize us. While there is obviously a balance to this, most people err more on the side of showing all their cards and posting about all of their thoughts and feelings.

4. Seduction Should be a Conscious Effort

The Art of Seduction runs contrary to the popular belief that love and attraction should happen spontaneously. The entire book is a step by step process on how to seduce a “victim”. I can understand why people are so opposed to the idea of conscious seduction, but I think they are missing something vital.

Just think about how many relationships you know of that ended because they became stale and boring. They probably stagnated because neither partner consciously put forth effort to make things exciting. Now imagine how many relationships never happened because neither person was willing to be tactical in their approach to seduction. Instead one of them just hoped it would happen.

Seduction is a game. You can hope to get lucky and pull a perfect hand (and keep that hand) or you can be methodical about how you play. The game is almost always more fun for both players when you make conscious and deliberate moves.